1.5 hour commute 3 days a week (London to Cambridge)

[Yesolafff]

Is this doable? (The other 2 days will be WFH).
Commuting from London to Cambridge. Salary 40k.

Thanks in advance

depends on other outgoings

I don't get how you're working out your commuting costs. The cheapest ticket I can find is £40 a day return. Railcards aren't valid for travel before 10.00, and you need to add in your tube travel. Honestly you need to factor in double that.

A salary of £40k will give you a take home of £2,571 per month assuming you get standard tax allowances etc.

(This doesn't include any student loan payments that you may be making)

If commuting costs are £3k a year, that's £250 a month which will leave you with £2,321 to live on.

A take home of £2,321 is what you would get if you salary was £35.6k

I don't get how you're working out your commuting costs. The cheapest ticket I can find is £40 a day return. Railcards aren't valid for travel before 10.00, and you need to add in your tube travel. Honestly you need to factor in double that.

If you read earlier posts, you'll see that both 16-25 and 26-30 railcards are valid.

I just did a quick check on Trainline. An Anytime Day Return which is valid for the times she wants to travel is £26.50

Although there are even cheaper tickets if you get advance singles - although in that case you can only use that particular train.

Travelling next week using advance singles from Liverpool Street to Cambridge at 07:28 and returning at 17:50 is just £13.15 with a railcard

Ah I stand corrected Didn't realise railcards now valid before 10am - good to know!

Whether it's reasonable depend on your other outgoings OP. Which you haven't said. You are though living in a very expensive city, while commuting to a much cheaper one which doesn't make sense. You're not even getting London weighting on your salary, but you have London costs. Can't you move?

I won't have many other outgoings- living with family so will pay a small contribution to living costs.

Just realised the station I would be getting on at isn't the first stop to Cambridge so will probably be rammed!

Would people recommend kings x or finsbury Park to travel to Cambridge?

@titchy

Whether it's reasonable depend on your other outgoings OP. Which you haven't said. You are though living in a very expensive city, while commuting to a much cheaper one which doesn't make sense. You're not even getting London weighting on your salary, but you have London costs. Can't you move?

Cambridge might be cheaper than London in some ways big it's certainly not cheap. And it's very hard to buy or rent there because the market is saturated. At least in London there's rental property available.

@Yesolafff I think the train form kings cross stops at Finsbury Park? Although might depend if it's the fast train or not, benefit to getting on at kings cross is it's the end of the line, I wonder how busy it gets going in the direction you're going though?

@titchy - the Network railcard definitely isn’t valid before 10am - it’s the two young person’s railcards which are.

I used to do that 5 days a week with London so yep totally do able.

A salary of 40k if you’re under 26yo is good. I assume there’s no similar jobs in Cambridge? You’re young, the job doesn’t have to be forever. I assume you don’t have kids to be racing home for? Do it, get the experience.

Depends if you value 37k - tax and ni and 9 hours (more often more) of your time spent on a rammed train, with smelly irritating commuters, currently in a mask and likely to be for the next year, rather than your current situation....

Given you're single and living at home, I'd say that yes aif this is a step up, I'd accept it in your Shoes. But it will inevitably be wearing and more than 3 hours a day. For example,my commute varied from 50 minutes on a very good day to 1.5 to 3 hours plus on a bad day. And sadly the bad days tend to all be in the wet, dark, colder days and come in clusters.

@Yesolafff

I won't have many other outgoings- living with family so will pay a small contribution to living costs.

Just realised the station I would be getting on at isn't the first stop to Cambridge so will probably be rammed!

Would people recommend kings x or finsbury Park to travel to Cambridge?

Would it be rammed going out of London TO Cambridge at peak times). The other way - yes, but I'd imagine not the way you want to go? Maybe worth actually doing the journey a couple of times in the relevant time periods to see how you feel?

@CovidCorvid

A salary of 40k if you’re under 26yo is good. I assume there’s no similar jobs in Cambridge? You’re young, the job doesn’t have to be forever. I assume you don’t have kids to be racing home for? Do it, get the experience.

She'll be working in Cambridge.

Oh sorry, for some reason I thought it was other way round.

Guess same stands though, OP wouldn't be commuting if she'd found something closer to home. So take the job for now and get the experience. Look for something closer to home in a bit.

Commute should be better as maybe everyone else is going the opposite direction?

@Yesolafff oh and one little tip - if you buy your ticket on trainline, you'll be able to find 'split fares' which work out £3 cheaper than buying it at the machine and you can definitely use your young persons railcard during peak hours.

I travel the other direction, so Cambridge to Kings Cross and we always pass the KGX to Cambridge train and it's virtually empty. I'm not too sure what it was like pre Covid times to be honest. But I really don't think it'll be rammed, especially as so many people are still working from home.

There are now 2 routes to Cambridge
There's the main one which goes out of Kings Cross, Finsbury Park etc and another one via Thameslink stations (eg Farringdon, City Thameslink, London Bridget etc) It depends where you are coming from on London t

You should be able to buy a carnet so you buy a book of 10 tickets (gives a small discount, say 10%). You can reduce your costs a bit more by buying some off peak return tickets which you can use coming home if you've gone out after work with your colleagues.

1.5 hours commute is fine - unless you have young children and no back up

@mellicauli

There are now 2 routes to Cambridge There's the main one which goes out of Kings Cross, Finsbury Park etc and another one via Thameslink stations (eg Farringdon, City Thameslink, London Bridget etc) It depends where you are coming from on London t

You should be able to buy a carnet so you buy a book of 10 tickets (gives a small discount, say 10%). You can reduce your costs a bit more by buying some off peak return tickets which you can use coming home if you've gone out after work with your colleagues.

1.5 hours commute is fine - unless you have young children and no back up

How do I buy a carnet please? I wonder if I can use my young person's railcard with it.

I think the carnet might only be for the Thameslink route.

There are also trains from Liverpool St, but not stopping at Finsbury Park. (last stop before Liverpool St is Tottenham Hale, and they take longer - but useful as an alternative on days when the other line is blocked)

You can buy carnet tickets at the station.

DH commutes 4 hours, door to door each day into London (2h each way) 5 days a week. Tiring and expensive but doable.